Busy month for Bees as promotion chase continues

Nick Sandamas on Barnet FC’s mixed return from seven games in October

The outside of Prenton Park, home of Tranmere Rovers, viewed from across the car park — Prenton Park – Home of Tranmere Rovers FC by Anthony Parkes, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

It was a busy October for the Bees with seven games.

The first action was a Football League Trophy group game against League One AFC Wimbledon and, with a Barnet line-up which included a first team debut for 18-year-old academy product Anthony Haralambous in goal, the game ended goalless. The Bees then prevailed on spot kicks with Romany Crichlow the hero to give them a good chance of qualifying for the knockout stage.

There followed a superb performance in coming from behind to beat Steve Evans’ Bristol Rovers 3-1 in their own back yard, which was made even better by the fact that the Gas had won their previous eleven home league games (dating back to January).

Ellis Harrison had given Rovers a superb start in the fourth minute with the opener but, in the second half, it was a different story as the determined Bees roared home with three goals in the final ten minutes to clinch victory.

Adam Senior, with his first goal of the season, equalised. Then, with five minutes to go, Rovers’ Tommy Leigh saw red for a late tackle on Charlie Lakin. This proved crucial as it allowed the eleven men to take advantage. Zac Williams put Barnet ahead with a peach of a strike before Kabongo Tshimanga scored late to send the 500 travelling fans in raptures. The three points kept the Bees in second spot in League Two.

Next was a trip to Merseyside to face Tranmere Rovers and, in only their third ever meeting, the Bees came out on top, coming from behind for a 2-1 victory to remain on the coattails of Salford City.

A magnificent first half strike for Tranmere by Will Vaulks was cancelled out by a second half double strike from Barnet top scorer Tshimanga with the winning goal coming from the spot three minutes from the end.

Swindon Town visited next and left The Hive with a fine 3-1 win to end the Bees’ unbeaten start to the season. First half goals from Mitch Clark and a brace from Aaron Drinan put the Robins out of sight. Tshimanga’s goal was a mere consolation.

A chance for Barnet to put that result behind them then came against Oldham Athletic but, despite Tshimanga putting them ahead with 20 minutes on the clock, Mike Fondop popped up with a last ditch strike to deny the Bees three crucial points.

As we went to press they were due to face York City and Crewe Alexandra, two tough encounters to test the Bees’ mettle but which would hopefully yield more points with Tshimanga also hoping to add to his nine goals so far.

This month, it’s back-to-back cup ties to get going with home games against both Tranmere Rovers and Leyton Orient in the FA Cup first round and EFL Trophy respectively, followed by league encounters against fellow promotion chasers Walsall and then against strugglers Port Vale and Rochdale.

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